“I plan to. I plan to please you until you-”

“Relax?”

“Come.” He slid down her body, kissing her stomach, her ribs. “And then again.” Making himself at home between her thighs, he smiled wickedly. “And again.”

Oh, God. If he kept at it, she was going to go off in approximately two minutes-

He gave a slow, sure stroke of his tongue and she revised her estimation to two seconds. His hands skimmed up her legs to her inner thighs, holding her right where he wanted her, and then he added a finger to the mix and she couldn’t have stopped from exploding to save her life. It hit her like a freight train, and he made her ride it out to the very end, slowly bringing her down…

After a moment, or maybe a year, she came back to her senses and realized she lay there on the rock, staring up at the stars, her hands fisted in Zach’s hair, holding him to her in a way that would have horrified her if she’d been capable of rational thought, which she wasn’t. Not quite yet.

He pressed his lips to one inner thigh, then the other, then crawled up her body, his mouth trailing hot and wet kisses along her skin as he went. She ran her hands up and over his back, his shoulders, and he let out a quiet sound of pleasure.

Taking her face in his hands, his mouth came back on hers as he pushed inside her, filling her so that she thought she might burst, holding her there on the very edge with fierce thrusts that sent pleasure spiraling through her, so far beyond anything she could have imagined. They never stopped kissing, not until the end when she fell apart for him again, and when he did the same for her, his head thrown back, her name on his lips.

When it was over, he rolled to his back so that they lay there on the rock side by side, breathing like lunatics, staring up at the stars, listening to the ocean crashing onto the sand just below them.

“That was…” She let out a half laugh. Words failed.

“Yeah.” His voice was husky, rough. “That was.”

Turning her head, she looked at him and felt her heart catch at the sight of him, all long, defined grace, lit only by the silvery moon, which was a good color for him. Hell, any color would be good for him with that mouthwatering body.

Shifting to his side, he smiled as he reached for her and pulled her against him.

A cuddle.

Damn it, he really knew the moves, didn’t he. Hard to keep her distance with him, that was for sure. But she was letting loose, so what the hell. Brooke scooted in as tight as she could get, loving the steady thud of his heart beneath her ear, loving the warm strength of his body all around hers, loving the feel of his hands skimming over her. “Maybe we should get up before we forget we only had the one condom.”

His answer was a soft laugh, and he pressed his mouth to her ear. “There are plenty of ways around that.”

She stared into his naughty, bad-boy smile, a smile that assured her that whatever ways he had in mind, she was going to like them. Her body was already halfway to another orgasm at just the thought. “The party.”

“Yeah.” He let out a breath. “Right.”

“I mean, we should go, right? Blake said you need the kiss-up points with the chief.” She sat up, looking for her panties, which were behind them, lying on top of his shorts. It was silly, given what they’d just done, but it looked so intimate. Too intimate. Snatching them both, she tossed him his shorts, and watched him pull them on that body she could happily look at unclothed for hours.

Days.

Weeks. Oh, God. So much for keeping her head.

She spent the next few awkward seconds trying to right her dress, and not having much luck until he turned her away from him and tied her halter himself. “Brooke?”

Just the sound of his voice did her in. Closing her eyes, she swallowed hard. “Yeah?”

Zach stroked a finger down the back of her neck, evoking a shiver and a yearning that weakened her knees again. “I loved watching you let loose.”

“Twice.”

He grinned as he pulled on his shirt. “I still think we should try for a perfect hat trick.”

“Party,” she said weakly, tempted to do just that. “We’re going to the party.”


* * *

They walked down the beach toward the party together, Brooke’s mind working overtime. The hot, sexy guy walking alongside her had seen her naked.

Touched her naked.

Kissed her naked-

“Well, well. What do we have here?”

Brooke jerked her thoughts to the present and looked at Cristina, who stood in front of them on the sand in a tiny bikini top and a pair of board shorts riding low on her trim hips. “You two look quite…flushed this evening.”

Just behind her, the chief’s birthday bash appeared to be in full swing. There was a big bonfire and several barbecues going. Music blared out of a set of speakers, and people were sitting on the sand, standing around the fire or dancing. Aidan was swaying like peanut butter on jelly with a pretty brunette. Dustin and Sam were happily flipping burgers. Blake was adding logs to the fire.

There were a bunch of other people, as well, from different shifts and different firehouses. In the center, enjoying the attention, stood Chief Allan Stone himself. A tall man in his fifties, he had the air of an army general and commanded respect-even fear-on the job. But tonight he was smiling and looking more comfortable than Brooke had ever seen him.

But mostly all she could see was the cynical twist to Cristina’s lips as the female firefighter took the time to scrutinize Brooke from head to toe.

Brooke could only imagine what she looked like, and shifting uncomfortably, glanced down at herself. Yep, her dress was a wrinkled mess, not a surprise given that ten minutes ago it’d been rucked up to her waist.

Zach reached out and pulled something from her hair. A piece of dried seaweed. Perfect.

“I’d call the cute police,” Cristina said dryly, “but they wouldn’t know who to arrest first.” And with that, she turned and walked back to the fire.

“She knows,” Brooke whispered.

Well, she wouldn’t go back and change it even if she could. She’d be remembering tonight for many, many nights to come, and would undoubtedly get all hot and bothered all over again at the remembering, and maybe even ache over what might have been, but she wouldn’t take it back.

“Ready?” he asked.

She nodded, and they joined the crowd. Zach was immediately pulled away and put on barbecue duty, leaving her standing on the outskirts, a little bit anxious. Which was ridiculous. She’d just been bare-ass naked on a rock, she sure as hell could handle this.

Dustin came up to her and offered a plate of food. He waited until she’d taken a big bite of the burger. “Hungry, huh?”

She slid him a glance. “Yes.”

He nodded and said nothing else. Just stared a little glumly at the dance floor where Cristina was dirty dancing with someone Brooke had never seen before. “Why don’t you ask her to dance?” she asked.

“Because she’d think it was funny.”

“Funny that you have a crush on her?”

“I don’t have a crush on her.” He sighed. “Okay, I do. Shit.”

Sam and Eddie brought Brooke a drink. “To replenish the fluids,” Sam explained. Both men looked at her expectantly.

“What?”

“You tell us,” Eddie said.

Instead, she took another large bite of her burger.

“Don’t you have anything you want to share?” Sam looked hopeful. “With your two best friends?”

“We’re best friends?”

They both nodded eagerly. “So if something was on your chest,” Sam said. “And you just needed to, you know, get it off-”

“In detail,” Eddie added. “We’re all ears.”

Her burger congealed in her gut. “You know?”

“Oh, we know all.”

She looked at Dustin, who grimaced, then nodded. She handed him back the plate, and Eddie the drink, and then walked off. She stopped at the water’s edge.

“Stop sulking, will you?”

Brooke turned and faced Cristina. “I’m not sulking.”

“Pouting, then. Look, this is a fire station. We’re all walking God complexes who put our lives on the line every day, and yet socially? Immature as high school kids. Come on-” she snorted when Brooke scoffed “-we love to talk. You’ve given us something new to talk about. Deal with it.”

Brooke sighed. “How long will it last?”

“Until it’s over.”

“It is over.”

“Please.” “It is. It was a one-time-only thing.”

“Okay, now I know you’re crazy.”

“Why?”

“Why would you sleep with that man only once? That’s just a waste of all that hotness.”

“I’m leaving in a few weeks. We agreed it was just a letting-loose thing.”

Cristina stared at her, then laughed. “And let me guess. You’re already regretting that stupid decision.”

Brooke looked away, into the bonfire. “No.” Yes.

Cristina just shook her head. “Well, lucky for me, your shortsightedness is another woman’s gain.” And she walked away in her sexy little top and shorts, heading directly toward Zach, stopping to hug Blake.

Zach stood at one of the barbecues, holding a long spatula, flipping burgers and laughing at something Aidan was saying to him. Just looking at him, something happened inside Brooke. A clutch. A quiver.

What would it be like if she wasn’t leaving? she wondered.

But she always left.

Always.

Besides, she’d said no strings. She’d insisted. She’d come here tonight, just wanting to let go, to live and, oh boy, had she. She just hadn’t realized that in doing those things, something else would happen.

In spite of her promise, she’d begun to fall for Zach.

She watched as Cristina took the plate out of his hands and handed it to Aidan before drawing Zach over to where people were dancing, proceeding to grind up against him in tune to the music.